The Politics of 'Racial Health': Myths, Maladies, and the History of Policy
Friday, October 26-Saturday, October 27, 2001
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Travel and lodging subventions are available for two or three graduate students in historical and social studies of health to attend and participate in discussions in this multidisciplinary workshop. The workshop brings together historians and other scholars interested in the interplay of racial ideologies, politics, and health care policy relating to African-Americans and Africans throughout the 20th century. (The workshop revolves around the discussion of pre-circulated papers; see schedule of participants and papers below.)
Graduate students interested in applying for hotel and travel subsidy should send a short letter (no longer than 2 pages) describing their scholarship and their interest in the topic, and presenting their travel itinerary and budget, to Peg Polansky at the address below
Email attachments may also be sent to Peg Polansky at: mpolansky@rci.rutgers.edu
Center for African Studies
Friday, October 26
9:00 -10:30 a.m.:
Discussion
The "African Patient" in Politics, History, and Public Policy (Co-sponsored with Center for African Studies)
11:00 -11:30 a.m.:
Introduction and Welcome
"Myth, Memory, and the Politics of Racial Health," Keith Wailoo (Rutgers University, History/Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research)
12:30 -2:45 p.m.:
Panel I -- Defining "Racial Health": The Uses of Myth and Memory
"Fact, Fiction, and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study," Susan Reverby, (Wellesley College, Women's Studies)
"Memories of Tuskegee and the Recruitment of African-Americans into Clinical Trials," Giselle Corbie-Smith, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dept of Social Medicine/Medicine)
"Black Belt: Struggles over Genetics at an Historically Black College," Jennifer Reardon, (Harvard University, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program)
"'Only the Bones Were White': Constructing Race and Medicine at the US Army Medical Museum," Lisa Herschbach, (New Jersey Institute of Technology, Department of History)
Commentary: Julie Livingston, New Jersey Institute of Technology, History
Second commentator - to be announced
3:00 -5:00 p.m.:
Panel II -- Mental Health, Race Relations, and the Practices of
Psychiatry
"The Mental Health of the Enslaved and Antebellum Psychiatry," Kirby Randolph, (University of Pennsylvania, Department of History)
"African Colonial Psychiatry and the History of Psychiatry," Jonathan Sadowsky, (Case Western Reserve University, Department of History)
"Debating Mental Health in African-Americans: Lessons for Ethnicity and Public Policy," Victor R Adebimpe, (Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh/Allegheny College of Health Sciences)
Commentary: Michael Adas, Rutgers University, History
Elizabeth Lunbeck, Princeton University,History
Saturday, October 27
9:00 -11:30 a.m.:
Panel III -- Race Biology: The Legacy of Measurement and Mismeasurement
"The Full-Blooded Negro and the African Past," Evelynn Hammonds, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept of History of Science)
"The Slavery/Hypertension Hypothesis: Dissemination and Appeal of a Modern Race Theory," Jay Kaufman, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Epidemiology)
"The Myth of the Malaria Tolerant Worker in Colonial South Africa," Randall Packard, (Emory University, Department of History)
Commentary: Phil Pauly, Rutgers University, History
Herman Bennett, Rutgers University, History
2:00 - 4:30 p.m.:
Panel IV - The Meanings of Racial Health in the American South
"Race and a 'Disease of Civilization': Eclampsia in the Congo and the American South," Nancy Rose Hunt, (University of Michigan, Department of History/OBGYN)
"Misunderstanding Pellagra in the American South: Gender, Race, and Political Economy," Harry Marks, (Johns Hopkins University, History of Medicine)
"The Strange Career of Race and Cancer in the American South," Keith Wailoo, (Rutgers University, History/Institute for Health)
Commentary: Peter Guarnaccia, Rutgers University, Human Ecology/Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research
Samuel Roberts, Columbia University, History
4:30 p.m.: Closing Remarks
